Salman Butt has "lost everything" according to his counsel, due to the loose talk of his friend and former agent to an undercover journalist from the News of the World. Yet as Mazhar Majeed took his seat in the dock next to him on Wednesday, Butt unexpectedly engaged his nemesis in polite conversation.

Once Majeed's counsel had finished presenting his case for clemency to the court, however, the last embers of his friendship with Butt seemed finally to have been extinguished. The former batsman's accusing glare told of a deep sense of betrayal. Majeed's own face was a rictus of anguish as his counsel, seeking to mitigate the prison sentence he will surely receive for his part in a conspiracy to subvert cricket, held up Butt as the criminal mastermind. The version of events that unfolded was of a greedy, jealous young man, one not content with a princely fortune in excess of £1m. According to Majeed, Butt yearned for the still-greater wealth of team-mates from less comfortable backgrounds, whom he perceived to be enjoying the corrupt rewards of match-fixing.

Majeed's statement told the court that it was Butt who had put him in touch with "Sanjay", an illegal bookmaker in India who had previously been described to the court as "sinister", and that Butt was the instigator and the ringleader of the plot. Butt strenously denied knowing Sanjay.

It is difficult to know whom to believe. Yet that is the task facing Mr Justice Cooke on Thursday, as he considers the sentences to hand down against Majeed, Butt and the bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir.

At one stage Mark Milliken-Smith QC, for Majeed, addressed the court to relay his client's explanation that Butt had collected £10,000 from the plot to bowl three no-balls at Lord's. He said that Asif and Amir had received £65,000 and £2,500 respectively. As Milliken-Smith spelled out those figures, confused, angry expressions overtook the three convicted cricketers in the dock. This was the disintegration of a collapsed match-fixing ring that could cost all four men their liberty.

Butt is suffering an inner turmoil his stoical expression did not reflect: in the hour before his guilt was finally proven on Tuesday after a 22-day trial in courtroom four of Southwark crown court, his wife had been giving birth to his second child in Lahore. At the precise moment he might otherwise have been excitedly relaying happy news to friends and family, he was instead 6,000 miles away, listening to his legal team as they explained the likely custodial consequences of his criminal actions.

"He then had to make the phone call of his life to explain to his wife what this will mean," said Ali Bajwa QC. "His money is almost entirely gone. It has gone on [defending himself against International Cricket Council charges in] Doha, and on travelling to this country for this trial. The pressure he now feels is indescribable. There is no welfare state in Pakistan. Mr Butt cannot enjoy that peace of mind. A person who receives an immediate custodial sentence here can expect visits from their family. Mr Butt cannot expect that here. He has been in this country four weeks. He misses his son, with whom he has a very special bond, terribly.

"He did not sleep at all last night and has not eaten since [the verdict] either. He has received one hammer blow after the next for his involvement in that conspiracy. From losing the captaincy, suspension from cricket, loss of his money, his income, his honour, his reputation, his cricket career. Having lost everything as a result of his involvement in this conspiracy, he now has only his liberty and his family left to lose. He invites me to urge upon [the judge] any alternative than prison. He asks your lordship what a prison sentence would achieve."

One motive could be deterrence, and there are concerns that what has emerged here is scratching the surface. The judge heard assertions from Majeed's counsel that "Sanjay" had boasted of "his involvement with other players, not just in the subcontinent".

Majeed, with his daughters aged seven and five and his three-month-old son, is said to be beset with dread. "He accepts it has had a devastating effect on not only the sport of cricket itself but also the consequences on those who play and support the sport, not only the many millions of players but children as well," said Milliken-Smith of his client. "He knows he must be and will be punished for what he has done and admitted."

Amir, too, once the most promising cricketer of his generation, is now a man in ignominy, his head bowed throughout Wednesday's proceedings. "The best day of my life was when I was selected to play for Pakistan," he said in a statement read to the court. "I got my shirt the night before, I put it on and stood in front of the mirror for a very long time.

"If I could have I would have slept in it, but I didn't want to ruin the shirt. That moment was my dream as soon as I began to realise I could play well when I was 13. My only dream was to play cricket for Pakistan. I don't know what my future holds but I would like to say I have learnt a very hard lesson."

Mr Justice Cooke said: "An inference that could be drawn is that this was such a widespread activity in the team that a newcomer could be infected with the activity, as this was a norm."

If that is so, then those who are involved in match-fixing should read carefully what the convicted men are going through even before their fates have been decided.

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